Many recreational vehicles and marine craft have self-contained bathrooms. The fixtures in these bathrooms (e.g., toilets) are served using a pressurized source of clean water which introduces the clean water into the toilet bowl via a hose.
Waste water is disposed into holding tanks. The holding tank is typically located immediately below the toilet so that when the toilet is flushed, the wastewater drops down through a vertical conduit into the tank. The wastewater is maintained in the storage tank until it is able to be disposed of appropriately at a dumping facility.
The addition of chemicals to the wastewater is necessary to prevent odors and to assist in the decomposition process. These chemicals can be added in many different ways. One is for the owner to manually dispose them into the bowl during every use. Obviously this subjects the user to the mechanics involved, e.g., scooping or pouring the cleaner. But it also subjects them to properly metering the use. This presents the likelihood of human error. If too much cleaner is used, it is wasted. If too little, then holding-tank odor and soiling problems (caused by the failure to decompose the solid waste) may result.
Other techniques have been used in which the cleaner is introduced automatically using some sort of system. One such system automatically squirts a regulated quantity into the toilet bowl with each flush. Unfortunately, with these systems the cleaner sometimes is not thoroughly mixed into the waste water. This creates pockets of untreated areas in the holding tanks, and other pockets of over-treated areas.
One conventional system uses a block of disinfecting cleaner in the introduction pipe before the cleaner is introduced into the toilet. But these blocks are difficult to replace, and it is difficult to identify when they have run out of cleaning power. Further, because these systems are dependent on the cleaner being dissolved into the flowing water, disposal concentrations fluctuate greatly from flush to flush dependant on the amount of time allowed between flushes. This is because there is no means to adequately meter the amount of cleaner administered with each flush.
Therefore, there is need in the art for a system which adequately, accurately, and easily administers cleaning chemicals in a self-contained bathroom system.